Penguin’s cycling hero Amy Cure is happiest at home

World champion track cyclist Amy Cure on her return to her home town of PenguinSource: News Corp Australia

THE night Amy Cure became a track cycling world champion in Colombia in March, “Penguin” almost started trending on Twitter.

The tiny Tasmanian town had a new hero in 21-year-old Cure, who won the points race at this year’s UCI world championships in typically aggressive fashion.

As far as she knows, Penguin had never had a world champion in anything before she won a rainbow jersey that helped put her home town on the map. And Penguin responded by throwing a welcome home party involving kids from her old school.

“Anna Meares posted a Tweet about the fastest ‘Penguinian’ around and I think that’s where it all started,” Cure said of the social media frenzy after her win.

“It was really good to come home. You work so hard for everything and you’re training in Adelaide so much, everything is away from home. And sometimes you forget about how much people are supporting you at home until you go back and see crowds of people who come and see you.’’

Cure is now riding that wave of support all the way to Glasgow for next week’s Commonwealth Games, where she is in contention to ride the points race, scratch race and individual pursuit.

There is no cycling pedigree in Cure’s family, but she always had a bike on the family farm at Penguin where her parents, who run a building business, still live.

But cycling went from a passing interest to a passion after Cure made regular trips to Burnie to watch the New Year’s Day carnivals.

At 18 she moved to Adelaide to train with the national track team, and in 2012 made her Olympic debut in London.

But it was with mixed feelings that she returned home from the Games a month later.

Cure got the tracksuit, marched with the team and did everything her teammates were asked of in training, but didn’t get a ride as Melissa Hoskins, Josephine Tomica and Annette Edmondson combined to claim fourth in the team pursuit.

Cure was one of only two Australians to claim individual world titles in Colombia two years after the London disappointment.

She said the London experience had played a part in spurring her on to better things.

“After London I was really disappointed in not getting a ride, but I knew I couldn’t sit back and dwell on not getting a race,” Cure said.

“So I went out and enjoyed the whole Olympic atmosphere and came back, and that in the end has made me a stronger athlete.

“Taking the one positive from every negative has got me where I am today.”

Cure is known as a tough cookie on the bike, and a rider from Australia’s men’s track endurance team said “she knows how to hurt herself”.

“At the end of the day it comes down to how much you push yourself and how much you want it,” Cure said.

There’s no doubt after the highs of a world title in Cali and the lows of the Olympics in London, Cure is ready to attack the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome in Glasgow next week with everything she has.

See today’s Mercury for more stories from the upcoming Glasgow Commonwealth Games